Remembering King Louis XVI

23 August 1754 - 21 January 1793

Domine salvum fac Regem et exaudi nos in die qua invocaverimus te.1

In memory of Louis XVI, King of France and Navarre executed during the Reign of Terror, we pray for the happy repose of his soul. Vive le roi!

Eternal rest grant unto His Majesty, O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen

Note:
(1) Lord, save the King, and hear us when we call upon thee.

Giornata della Memoria Scurcola Marsicana

A Snowy Sunday at the Morgan

A quiet winter afternoon, the park hushed beneath fresh snow

After Traditional Latin Mass, we returned to the Morgan Library & Museum on a quiet, snow-dusted Sunday afternoon to see several of the season’s most anticipated exhibitions—each a meditation on faith, beauty, and memory.

Pletà, ca. 1470, tempera and oll on panel, transferred to
fiberglass panel, Giovanni Bellini (1424/26-1516)

Giovanni Bellini’s Pietà — Restored

This presentation marks the first U.S. showing of Giovanni Bellini’s Pietà, newly conserved and on loan from the Museo della Città in Rimini. Displayed in J. Pierpont Morgan’s Study alongside Renaissance works from the Morgan’s own collection, the painting reveals Bellini’s restrained vision of grief, with youthful angels quietly preparing Christ’s body for veneration. The result is a deeply contemplative image whose sorrow is expressed through stillness rather than drama.

(L) Boy with a Basket of Fruit, ca. 1595, oil on canvas, Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio (1571-1610). (R) Head of a Bearded Man, ca. 1580-90, black and white chalk on blue paper, Simone Peterzano (1540-1599)

Caravaggio’s Boy with a Basket of Fruit

This focused exhibition centers on Caravaggio’s early Boy with a Basket of Fruit, on loan from the Galleria Borghese in Rome, a work whose frank naturalism broke sharply with Roman ideals. Shown alongside Lombard precedents, paintings by Annibale Carracci, and works documenting Caravaggio’s influence, the installation traces both his roots and his immediate impact. It concludes with Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s portrait drawing of Scipione Borghese, the painting’s early owner and great champion.

(L) Girl with Cherries, ca. 1491-95, oil on panel, attributed to Marco
d'Oggiono (ca. 1467-1524). (R) Four Seasons in One Head,
ca. 1590, oil on panel, Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527-1593)

Basket of Fruit, ca. 1620, oil on canvas, Bartolomeo Cavarozzi (1587-1625)

(L) Study of a Young Man, ca. 1594-95, black chalk, Giuseppe Cesari,
known as the Cavaliere d'Arpino (1568-1640). (R) Head of a Youth,
ca. 1620, black and white chalk on light brown paper,
Francesco Rustici, called Rustichino (1592-1626)

A Life Study: A Monk Sleeping Against a Pile of Books,
ca. 1616, red chalk, Rutilio Manetti (1571-1639)

(L) Portrait of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, ca. 1632, red chalk
over graphite, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) (R) Head of a Youth
in a Hat, ca. 1600-1610, red chalk, Cristofano Allori (1577-1621)

Collections Spotlight, Spring 2026

This seasonal rotation in J. Pierpont Morgan’s library draws from across the Morgan’s collections, spanning medieval manuscripts, early printed books, literary papers, and musical autographs. Highlights range from Mozart’s wartime dance music and a medieval astrological treatise to Vesalius’s revolutionary anatomy and the fantastical worlds of Mandeville’s Travels, revealing how knowledge, myth, and art were recorded and transmitted across centuries. Shown together, these objects trace a continuous intellectual tradition shaped by curiosity, conflict, and imagination.

Contredanse "La bataille" (The battle), K. 535, autograph manuscript,
Vienna, January 23, 1788, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

String Quartet in D Minor, H. III, 83, autograph manuscript,
1803, Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) 

(L) The Pence Table, Set to Music, London: printed for the author
by L. Lavenu, 1796-98, Thonas Attwood, (1765-1838). (R) Mozart
autograph manuscript, 1925, Reynaldo Hahn (1875-1947)

Viva 'o Rre! Happy Birthday King Carlo di Borbone

b. Madrid, 20 January 1716 – d. Madrid, 14 December 1788

In memory of Carlo di Borbone, King of Spain, first Bourbon Duke of Parma, first Bourbon King of Naples and Sicily, we pray for the happy repose of his soul. Viva ‘o Rre!

Eternal rest grant unto His Majesty, O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen

Remembering Maria Sophia of Bavaria, Queen of the Two Sicilies

b. 4 October 1841 — d. 19 January 1925

In memory of Maria Sophia of Bavaria, Queen of the Two Sicilies and Heroine of Gaeta, we pray for the happy repose of her soul. Viva ‘a Reggina!

Eternal rest grant unto Her Majesty, O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon her. May her soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Festa di Sant’Antonio Abate at St. Josaphat’s Oratory

The Agnus Dei Knights of Columbus Council #12361 marked their Annual Festa di Sant’Antonio Abate at St. Josaphat’s Oratory, under the care of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. The celebration honored the Desert Father through prayer, tradition, and fellowship, reinforcing the continuity of Catholic devotion within the life of the parish. The liturgy was led by Rev. Canon Andreas Hellmann, whose presence underscored the oratory’s commitment to the sacred rites and inherited customs of the Church. Sant’Antonio Abate, ora pro nobis.

Celebrating the Feast of Sant'Antuono Abate in Brooklyn, New York

On Saturday evening, members and friends of the San Rocco Society of Potenza in New York gathered in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, for our Annual Fucarazzo di Sant’Antuono—the traditional St. Anthony bonfire. Dedicated to the father of Western monasticism, this ancient rite centers on a purifying blaze meant to ward off evil, protect animals and livestock, and ensure a fruitful year ahead. Symbolizing the saint’s triumph over Satan and temptation, the fire also marks renewal and regeneration, as winter gives way to the promise of spring.

Old tales lend the night an added enchantment, claiming that animals briefly regain the power of speech—and that misfortune awaits those who dare to overhear them.

Patron of animals and farmers, anchorites and hospitallers, basket makers and bell ringers, gravediggers, amputees, pizza makers, and the glowing embers of the hearth, Sant’Antuono is also invoked against pestilence, skin ailments, ergotism, contagion, and demonic affliction.

Gathered around the protecting flames, revelers ate, drank, and prayed to our beloved patron. Long into the night, the fire was carefully fed with old Christmas trees, dried palm fronds from Palm Sunday, and other garden kindling.

Our heartfelt thanks to the La Rocca family for their boundless warmth and hospitality. As always, it was a joy to celebrate our faith and culture together. Evviva Sant’Antuono!

New Book — Byzantine Bari: A History of Southern Italy's Struggle Against Lombards, Normans, and Saracens

A new title that may be of interest to our readers. Available at Amazon.com

• Byzantine Bari: A History of Southern Italy's Struggle Against Lombards, Normans, and Saracens by John Carter

Publisher: Independently published
Publication date: December 27, 2025
Hardcover: $21.99
Paperwork: $13.99
Kindle: $2.99
Language: English
Pages: 164

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New Music — Alessandro Scarlatti: Vieni, O Notte

New music that may interest our readers.

• Alessandro Scarlatti: Vieni, O Notte performed by Francesca Aspromonte, Boris Begelman, and Arsenale Sonoro

Label: Aparte
Release Date: December 17, 2025
Audio CD: $21.98
Number of Discs: 1

Available at Amazon.com

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Photo of the Week: Marble Bust of Emperor Hadrian, Vatican Museum

Photo by New York Scugnizzo

Hommage au Roi Louis XVI

In Marseille

Godzilla Minus One as Judgment

Memories linger.
Imprinted forever, like
The bite of a shark.
~ haiku by Troy Southgate, Where the Thames Flows into the Shinano

In response to my Cautious Hopes: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms article, a reader suggested I watch Godzilla Minus One (2023). As much as I love science fiction and fantasy, my initial reaction was hesitation since I haven’t cared for most Godzilla films in recent years. Still, after a friend whose taste mirrors my own urged me to give it a chance, I finally did.

It’s funny how some readers would prefer I confine myself to Southern Italian matters, while others wish I would focus exclusively on Catholicism. And others still seem to appreciate when I write about culture more broadly—especially when it involves reclaiming it from the grip of ideologues. This review falls squarely in that last category.

As a boy, I loved the Godzilla films of the 1950s through the 1970s. Godzilla, to my young mind, was not a joke or a mascot; he was a terrible and tragic force—oddly dignified. In fact, I wept when he lost a fight to King Kong. Even in childhood, I sensed that the great kaiju was not merely a monster. He was a judgment—something unleashed in response to human transgression.

During a family road trip to Pennsylvania, I remember sitting in the back seat of the car, half-lost in thought, until I saw electrical transmission towers for the first time. To my parents’ great amusement, I suddenly shouted “Tokyo!”—having only ever seen such structures in films where Godzilla tore through them while leveling cities in Japan. To this day, my family still calls that stretch of highway Tokyo.

Those films—along with Battle of the Planets, Shogun Warriors, and The Micronauts—were my earliest exposure to Japanese popular culture. By high school, that interest had deepened and sharpened. Drawn to stories of samurai, geisha, and kamikaze, I encountered literary and martial figures like Yukio Mishima and Harukichi Shimoi, the latter a bridge between Italy and Japan, who pointed to a world where honor, aesthetics, and national character still mattered. In college, my interests expanded further into bushidō, Zen Buddhism, and the austere disciplines of haiku and tanka poetry.

That—more than nostalgia—is why Godzilla Minus One demanded my attention, and why it deserves to be taken seriously.

A force of reckoning, the film restores weight to Godzilla’s presence—moral, emotional, and physical. When he appears, the mood tightens. The destruction feels consequential, not playful, and dread is allowed to build rather than being buried under excess.

What sets the film apart is its seriousness. The human story matters, shaped by loss, responsibility, and limits. Godzilla does not interrupt the narrative; he completes it. The visual effects are disciplined, serving the story rather than overwhelming it. There are a few moments that verge on the absurd, but they remain contained. Restraint ultimately makes the monster far more terrifying than constant exposure ever could.

Godzilla Minus One rejects modern cynicism and self-parody. It treats myth, tragedy, and judgment without apology. In doing so, it reminds us that Godzilla once meant something—and can again.

A must-see for science fiction fans—and for anyone who still expects seriousness from the genre—I’m looking forward to the announced sequel, Godzilla Minus Zero, scheduled to be released later this year.

~ Giovanni di Napoli, January 16th, Feast o San Marcello I

Presentazione del Nuovo Numero della Rivista L'Alfiere

In Napoli

Viva 'o Rre! Happy Birthday SG King Francesco II of the Two Sicilies

b. Napoli, 16 January 1836 – d. Arco, 27 December 1894

In memory of Servant of God, King Francesco II of the Two Sicilies, we offer a prayer for his beatification. Francesco II, ora pro nobis.

O One and Triune God, Who casts Your glance on us from Your throne of mercy, and called Francis II of Bourbon to follow You, choosing him on earth to be king, modeling his life on the very Kingship of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, pouring into his heart sentiments of love and patience, humility and meekness, peace and pardon, and clothing him with the virtues of faith, hope and charity, hear our petition, and help us to walk in his footsteps and to live his virtues.

Glorify him, we pray You, on earth as we believe him to be already glorified in Heaven, and grant that, through his prayers, we may receive the graces we need. Amen.

Il Portastendardo di Civitella del Tronto (n. 55 - Gennaio 2026)

The Ides of January: Withdrawal, Memory, and Resolve

Archival photograph by the author

In my case, flight was transformed into the luxury of solitude. ~ Ernst Jünger, Eumeswil (1977)

On the Ides of January (January 13th), I returned to the cold woods of upstate New York to escape the stifling warmth of collectivism that afflicts the sprawling, insane asylum that is Gotham, and reconnect with my rugged individualism. A day once sacred to Jupiter and honoring household gods (Lares), I used this opportunity to withdraw and reorient myself toward God, pray for my ancestors, and replenish the strength required to remain ungovernable.

Armed with my Rosary, I embraced the solitude. Powering down my phone, the silence was not an absence but a discipline. The evening unfolded simply: coniglio alla cacciatore—rabbit in the old hunter’s style—shared with a crusty French baguette and a bottle of Etna Rosso, a volcanic red from Catania, followed by a Spanish brandy and a smoke from my Mastro Cascia bent briar pipe, crafted in Salemi, Sicily. These were not indulgences but restorations.

~ By Giovanni di Napoli, January 14th, Feast of the Infant Jesus of Prague

Votive Mass for Peace at the Shrine Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in Raritan, New Jersey

New Book — Naples as Laboratory: Style Options, Artistic Rivalry, and Self-Fashioning in Neapolitan Baroque Painting

A forthcoming title that may be of interest to our readers. Available at Amazon.com

• Naples as Laboratory: Style Options, Artistic Rivalry, and Self-Fashioning in Neapolitan Baroque Painting by Elisabeth Oy-Marra and Heiko Damn

Publisher: Brepols Publishers
Publication date: January, 2026
Paperback: $119.00
Language: Bilingual English/German
Pages: 194

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The Feast of the Holy Family, Continued

The Meditation on the Passion, ca. 1490,
oil and tempera on wood, Vittore Carpaccio

Thought I’d share a few bonus pics from our visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan on Sunday, the Feast of La Sacra Famiglia. More art from the day is linked here.

(L) Tommaso di Folco Portinari (1428-1501), ca. 1470, oil on panel,
Hans Memling. (R) Portrait of a Young Man, ca. 1470, oil on wood,
Antonello da Messina (Antonello di Giovanni d'Antonio) 

(L) The Martyrdom of Saint Barbara, ca. 1510, oil on linden, Lucas Cranach
the Elder. (R) Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist,
ca. 1507-9, oil on wood, Andrea Solario

(L) Judith with the Head of Holofernes, ca. 1640, oil on canvas, Massimo
Stanzione. (R) Judith with the Head of Holofernes, ca. 1530,
oil on linden, Lucas Cranach the Elder

Still Life with Oysters, a Silver Tazza, and Glassware,
1635, oil on wood, Willem Claesz Heda

(L) The Last Communion of Saint Jerome, early 1490s, tempera and gold on wood, Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi). (R) The Ascension of Christ, 1513, oil on fir, Hans Süss von Kulmbach  

(L) Don Gaspar de Guzmán (1587-1645), Count-Duke of Olivares, ca. 1636 or later, oil on canvas, Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo. (R) María Teresa (1638-1683), Infanta of Spain, ca. 1645, oil on canvas, Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo

Pluto and Cerberus, ca. 1588(?), bronze, attributed to Tiziano Aspetti

(L) Juno and the Peacock, late 16th century, bronze, after a model by Alessandro Vittoria. (R) Venus Marina, late 16th-early 17th century, bronze, after a composition by Girolamo Campagna

(L) Jupiter with a Thunderbolt, late 16th-early 17th century, bronze, possibly from the workshop of Joseph de Levis. (R) Saint Sebastian, 1566, bronze, Alessandro Vittoria (Alessandro Vittoria di Vigilio della Volpa)